


How the Avengers found out Tony had a daughter

by BookWorm_22



Series: How the Avengers and Fury found out Tony had a daughter [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Darcy Lewis is Tony Stark's Daughter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2017-07-11
Packaged: 2018-11-30 23:47:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11474193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BookWorm_22/pseuds/BookWorm_22
Summary: Tony Stark has a daughter. Tony Stark's daughter is Darcy Maria Stark alia Darcy Mary Lewis. The Avengers find this out (and Steve learns that Tony is NOT Howard or to jump to conclusions) in various circumstances with very different results.





	1. Tony ruins Darcy's life with Jane (and Thor)

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own the MCU or any of the Avengers. This is just me being sleep deprived and having insane conversations with my best friend notoneforreality.

Darcy Lewis was having a normal day – or as normal a one as someone can have when they’re friends with the Asgardian Crown Prince and Thunder God, their boss is said Asgardian/God’s girlfriend and can’t look after themselves to save their life and their father happens to be Tony Stark. She’d got up, made Jane her coffee and cooked Thor’s PopTarts, evicted Jane from her bed, supervised her eating, stopped Thor breaking the kitchen (again), prevented Jane killing herself with some weird science-y machines AND it was only ten in the morning.

Then everything went to shit.

Her dad had phoned, well JARVIS had but that was basically the same thing, and told her that SHIELD was requesting (read ordering) all the Avengers to live at Stark Tower so she had to pack up Thor’s things and because Thor wouldn’t go anywhere without Jane she also had to pack Jane’s things so naturally she had to pack her own things. Oh, and Dummy missed her.

Once that was out of the way Darcy only had to wrangle Jane into leaving her machines to be lovingly and carefully packed for their trip to Stark Tower and stop Thor destroying something again – it was all she seemed to do – and then get herself a coffee because a girl can’t survive without coffee and a Stark without coffee was unheard of.

Many, _many_ hours later Darcy had successfully got everything and everyone sorted and had set off for the nearest airport which was about three hours away – why Jane thought having a lab in the middle of the desert where people shouldn’t live was a good idea was beyond Darcy. By the time Darcy had driven to the airport with the multiple detours taken because Jane said she knew the way and Darcy argued she didn’t – Darcy was right – it was almost midnight and Darcy was complaining that all reasonable, _sensible_ adults (minus her father who really was reasonable just maybe not sensible) were in bed and why couldn’t they be. Thor was snoring (literally thundering – how Jane could sleep next to him was beyond Darcy) in the back and so Jane volunteered Darcy to wake him (Taser works well for this) and they _finally_ stumbled onto the plane that her dad had sent them.

Darcy headed straight for the coffee and proceeded to down three cups (hey, she was a Stark) and then fall straight asleep on the very comfy sofa in her dad’s million dollar private jet. She only woke up when Jane started screaming and Thor was brandishing Mew-Mew.

“Shut up Jane, I’m trying to sleep here” Darcy cried with her hand over her head and her other hand flailing for the mug of coffee she positioned next to the sofa before she fell asleep.

“Lady Darcy, there is a ghost on this metal contraption” Thor replied, swinging Mew-Mew dangerously close to the cupboard that held Darcy’s precious coffee.

“Ghost?” Darcy thought she had to still be dreaming.

“I believe Miss that Crown Prince Odinson is talking about me.”

“Oh, hey J. What’s happening with dad back home? Has he blown anything up yet?” Darcy answered the voice.

“Ah, I understand, it is the Man of Iron’s invisible servant” Thor boomed, dropping Mew-Mew with a thud that sent the plane juddering, “I apologise for the confusion.”

Jane was staring at a point past Darcy so she got up (to her utter annoyance, she wasn’t going to sleep anymore) and shook Jane by the shoulders. When this didn’t seem to work Darcy just slapped her which did work.

“W-wh-what?” Jane stuttered.

Darcy just sighed, rolled her eyes and gestured to the ceiling.

“Boss Lady, meet JARVIS – Just A Rather Very Intelligent System. J, meet my boss lady and Thor’s girlfriend, Dr Jane Foster” Darcy introduced them.

“Dr Foster. It is a pleasure to meet you” J said with no emotion as usual.

“What did you want J? Has dad blown himself up again? I mean, I know he hasn’t had an explosion for what – about a week but still…” Darcy trailed off mid rant as when she turned to look at Jane and promptly swore. She’d forgotten that Jane didn’t know about Tony Stark being her dad. Neither did Thor come to think of it. “I can explain?” she said sheepishly.

“Sir has not blown anything up apart from the table that your mother bought him for their first Christmas” J replied.

Darcy absent-mindedly waved her hand, “that’s fine, we never liked that table but Pepper wouldn’t allow us to throw it away. Sentimental crap or something.”

“You know the Man of Iron!” Thor boomed as he moved towards Darcy and picked her up in a crushing hug. Darcy swore some of her ribs broke, maybe her dad could build a suit for her for when this happened.

“Thor, put her down” Jane requested as Darcy turned red.

“My apologies Lady Darcy” Thor replied, shouting in her ear as she was returned to the floor and rubbed her ribs while gulping to get oxygen back again.

“How do you know Mr Stark?” Jane asked curious.

“Well….” Darcy started, then stopped and stared up at where she knew her dad had put a camera in the plane, hoping vainly for help, “he’s my dad.”

Darcy kept staring at the camera as chaos erupted around her. Jane had fainted when she heard the news and Thor didn’t seem to know whether to help Jane or hug Darcy. Luckily for her ribs the moan from Jane as she came around sufficiently distracted Thor and Darcy managed to escape with her ribs intact – this time – and quickly called her dad/JARVIS to ask for his intervention. Her dad just laughed and told her that it would mean they would be able to have fun together. Darcy promised to punch him for that.

By the time they had finally stumbled into Stark (Avengers) Tower it was some outrageous time in the morning a whole day after her dad had first called. Darcy just wanted to sit down and sleep – after a coffee of course – while Thor wanted to toast the Lady Stark as he now called her and Jane really wasn’t aware of anything as she was too busy worrying over her poor machines. Darcy did point out that she was amazing at packing shit and also if they break she can easily get her dad to buy some new ones because hey, if your dad’s Tony Stark you might as well get him to buy you shit. Her dad was waiting in the common floor to greet them with Pepper on her phone in the corner – probably covering for whatever stupid stunt her dad had done while they were on the flight. Darcy just flew into her dad’s waiting arms, hugged him then pulled pack and punched him square in the arm.

“Hey, that hurt” her dad yelped.

“That’s for leaving me on my own on the flight. And seriously, have you met this guy” Darcy started ranting while jerking her thumb at Thor, “his disasters added in with Boss Lady’s disasters mean that I’ve become disaster helpline central. The least you could do is help me when I really need it.”

“Sorry Darce.”

Darcy’s attempts to hit him again were stopped by a red haired lady walking into the room. She grabbed a bottle of vodka off the bar and somehow managed to slump elegantly down into one of the chairs. Darcy stared at her in jealousy – how could she just slump down in a chair like that? Whenever Darcy tried that she ended up hurting herself.

“One of those days Natashalie?” her dad asked.

“Yes” was the one word reply as the woman took a gulp of vodka – again Darcy was jealous, if she did that she’d fall over – she could take her drink but vodka was something else.

“Oh, these are…” her dad started but was interrupted by the woman.

“Doctor Jane Foster, Thor’s girlfriend and researcher into the Einstein-Rosen bridge and Darcy Maria Stark, alia Darcy Mary Lewis, your daughter and Dr Foster’s intern.”

Both Darcy and her dad’s mouths dropped.

“How did you find out?” her dad spluttered.

The woman just gave her dad a look and turned to face Darcy before taking another mouthful of vodka.

“My name is Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow. It wasn’t too hard to find if you know where to look.”


	2. Natasha is a spy (so of course she finds out)

After Natasha stopped being Natalie Rushman she sent all her files to Fury. As she was going through the files herself so she could give him her professional opinion – textbook narcissism and various other unhelpful qualities – she found a comment from Stark to JARVIS she didn’t understand. Natasha played the audio recording back again to see if it made any more sense.

_J, call Darce and make sure she hasn’t injured anyone since last week. Oh, and tell her that I’m fine._

Natasha cross-referenced the name Darce against everything she had on Stark – a lot – and found weekly orders from Stark to JARVIS reassuring Darce, Darcy or DL that he was fine and asking if she’d injured anyone. Natasha punched the computer after 10 hours of sifting through the files and nothing more being learnt about the Woman. Just as she was going to give up and go and scare some trainee agents – she works with Clint and as he was away it fell to her to scare them – a recording caught her eye. It was dated from 2 days previously.

_Darcy, I’ve got you off on the assault charges. The guy you hit made a statement about how he was groping you. I watched the CCTV, good punch by the way._

Natasha quickly flicked through the records from before the call to find the CCTV footage while simultaneously tracing the mobile number. The computer pinged and Natasha opened the records: Darcy Mary Lewis, July 5 1991, currently interning with Dr Jane Foster astrophysicist in New Mexico, parents Edward and Katherine Lewis – deceased, no relationships and nothing really of interest. How she was linked with Stark required some more digging. Natasha hacked the CCTV footage and silently cheered as Darcy landed a solid punch on the creep who groped her.

“Why is this woman so important to Stark that he would regularly check on her?” Natasha muttered to herself.

Natasha started to hack JARVIS and Stark’s mainframe to find any information on Darcy Mary Lewis but Stark’s firewalls were exceptional. After 3 hours of fruitlessly trying to get past even the first layer of security Natasha was forced to give up. It wasn’t as if this woman really was that important or interesting in the scheme of things but it would be nice if she knew how she knew Stark. Natasha decided to abandon it for the day, sleep, scare some new agents and come back to it sometime later.

About 2 weeks later she got a call from Clint about Asgardians, Thor, a bridge, a hammer, a metal monster called the Destroyer and an astrophysicist called Dr Jane Foster and her intern – a certain Darcy Mary Lewis. Natasha spent the phone call alternatively rolling her eyes and longing to have been there. Then she headed straight for the laptop and her research into Darcy Mary Lewis.

Many, many hours – and a whole vat of coffee and a bottle of vodka – later, Natasha had managed to find out that Darcy Mary Lewis was a fake name and that Edward and Katherine Lewis never existed. There weren’t many people who could create covers as good as Darcy’s was – and Natasha was sure that she was called Darcy as that was what Stark called her – and the only person that Natasha knew that could create them and didn’t work for SHIELD or any other agency was Tony Stark.

Natasha groaned, all she had to go on was the woman was called Darcy, Tony Stark had created a fake name and past for her so she was obviously important, she was a Political Science major at Culver University and was currently interning with Dr Foster. Natasha hacked SHIELD’s surveillance of the incident in New Mexico and added to her list the fact that she had a Taser and was proficient at using it. Natasha was torn between giving up or carrying on but the latter option would mean she would have to hack Stark again. It was worth a try.

Natasha decided to persuade – read threaten – one of the hackers SHIELD paid to hack Stark as it was beyond her capabilities on a computer. After ensuring it would be kept quiet and would never be found out she left the office and headed to one of the gyms where she could forget everything about Darcy and Stark for a while.

She had almost put it out of her mind by the time the hacker got back to her. He had sent her a hacked file with the assurance that Stark had not found out that he had been hacked due to the fact that he was currently out of the country. Natasha swore at the idiocrasy of people as just because Stark was out of the country didn’t mean that he wouldn’t know if he’d been hacked. She decided to ignore the issue as she couldn’t find out if he did now bar him storming SHIELD which, with his unpredictability, was possible.

Opening the files that had been hacked Natasha swore again. There in times new roman font size 12 the information she had been searching for for over six months: Darcy Maria Stark, July 5 1991, currently interning with Dr Jane Foster girlfriend of Thor Odinson and astrophysicist, parents Antony Stark and Louisa Wheeler – mother deceased.

Natasha blinked and leant back. Of anything she had expected that was not one of them. It did explain the overprotectiveness and proudness that Stark showed in the phone calls. She created a new folder in her own personally secured server – the one that even SHIELD didn’t know about which held information on her early life and the Red Room employees – encrypted it and buried it almost as deep as the files on the Soldier. Natasha mightn’t have liked Stark personally or professionally and her recommendation wasn’t exactly glowing but what she’d seen of Darcy Stark and Stark’s protectiveness, she felt that she somehow owed it to then them to not let anyone find out about their relationship.

It was only after Loki’s invasion when she had come to respect Tony – and yes it was Tony now not Stark – that she remembered Darcy Stark, especially when she heard that Thor was moving into the Tower when he was on Earth and that his girlfriend was also moving in which meant that her intern Darcy _Lewis_ was also moving in. Natasha resolved to be in the common room when they arrived but Fury and paperwork held her up so when she got to the common room she was craving vodka and they had already arrived. Ignoring Tony and the Natashalie comment – it was sort of deserved – she slumped into a chair took a gulp and then took great pleasure in interrupting Tony’s introduction.

“Doctor Jane Foster, Thor’s girlfriend and researcher into the Einstein-Rosen bridge and Darcy Maria Stark, alias Darcy Mary Lewis, your daughter and Dr Foster’s intern.”

Silently chuckling to herself at their expressions she replied to Tony’s question with very well hidden amusement.

“My name is Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow. It wasn’t too hard to find if you know where to look.”

She got up, took the vodka with her and casually threw over her shoulder.

“Good punch back in New Mexico to that groper.”

Natasha decided that having Darcy Stark in the Tower would be a good thing. Perhaps Tony wouldn’t kill himself so often as Dr Foster was clearly still alive.


	3. Clint has an obsession with air vents

Clint rather liked living in Stark/Avengers Tower. He had food, weapons, movies, people who didn’t care about him being deaf and there were plenty of air vents for him to hide in. Tony had even fitted out some areas of the vents with bean bags so that he could sit comfortably up there with JARVIS telling him when he was needed downstairs for food or movies or simply helping Tony annoy Steve. Being in the vents also helped when spying on people and getting information to use to blackmail them. Already in the two weeks that he had moved in he had found out that Bruce was an awesome singer – though generally he sung weird shit from different countries in different languages, Steve would sit in the chair that he had brought from his flat that had actually been his mother’s and later took pride of place in Coulson’s collection and drew the landscape of New York then and now while moaning about the state of the country and how all his friends had died, Natasha – well, if he used any blackmail against her she would kill him even if he thought about the blackmail because she was scary like that, and Tony just said everything on his mind regardless of who was nearby.

Clint had been called – ordered – by Fury into action to provide back up to some newbies on their first mission to dismantle a drug cartel after two and a half weeks which he thought would be a simple in and out affair. Unfortunately for him, the newbies really were newbies and made a complete cock-up of it and sort of managed to warn the cartel of their approach so Clint found himself fighting off what seemed like half the cartel before being taken out by a blow to the head that would have made Natasha feel ashamed to know him. Natasha got sent in to rescue him after three days which Clint rather thought was punishment for being taken out so easily so he was forced to put up with her disappointed stare the whole journey home. By the time they got back to the Tower, Thor, Dr Foster and her assistant Darcy Lewis had firmly settled in. Clint first saw Darcy Lewis when he came down from the vents for breakfast two days after he arrived and Lewis came shuffling into the common room with an empty mug of coffee and a zombie like look on her face. Natasha, who had been sitting in her chair for the last ten minutes sipping her coffee, ignored her as she almost fell into the stool and heaved the coffee carafe towards her. Clint was bursting to introduce himself to her properly but he’d seen Nat and Tony like this in the mornings and knew his life was worth more. It was only after Lewis had started her third cup that she looked up over the rim and saw Clint sitting next to her on the other stool. Screaming, she reached in her pocket before Nat told her that he alright and Lewis registered that it was him sitting next to her.

“Give a girl some warning next time” Lewis said, removing her hand from her pocket and punching him solidly in the arm. Clint rubbed it and nodded.

Before he could say anything, she’d got up, grabbed two carafes that he hadn’t seen sitting on the bar – not that he would admit that to Nat for fear of being killed – and walked out the room muttering about Science!Wrangling and annoying scientists. Clint decided to give up.

It was another week before he saw her again; this time at dinner. It was only him, Nat, Tony, Bruce and Lewis as Steve was out somewhere and Dr Foster and Thor had gone out on a date. Him and Nat were sitting down ready for dinner when Lewis came in, dragging Tony and Bruce behind her, again muttering about scientists and their lack of preservation. Tony was protesting but he shut up at the glare that Lewis sent him which seemed to make Bruce laugh. After Lewis had let Bruce go so he could dish up Tony grabbed Lewis by the waist and started tickling her which made her start and her hand to go towards her pocket and JARVIS speak up.

“Sir, it would be best to stop annoying Miss before her hand reaches her pocket.”

Tony hurriedly straightened up and let go of Lewis. Clint stared at them and leant over to speak to Nat.

“What’s up with them? It’s like they’ve known each other for years.”

Nat just smiled at him and thanked Bruce as he handed her her plate. Clint slumped down in his chair, nodded at Bruce in thanks, got kicked in the leg by Nat and thanked Bruce properly. Tony and Lewis were laughing at the interaction. Clint proceeded to sulk like a five-year old for the rest dinner and hurriedly retreated to the vents.

Clint spent the next two weeks on assignment and gratefully walked into Stark/Avengers Tower during the weekly movie night and promptly burst out laughing at the ridiculousness of the sight in front of him. Dr Foster was curled up like a cat in Thor’s lap in one of the stupidly comfortable armchairs. Nat was sitting in the other with a book on her lap and Bruce leaning against the arm while sitting on the floor cross-legged and meditating. Pepper was perched on the end of the sofa with her laptop on the table next to her and a pile of official looking papers neatly stacked on her. Tony and Lewis were laying cuddling each other across the rest of the sofa and occasionally one of them would end up with their feet on Pepper’s VISP (Very Important Stack of Paper) and promptly move them before Pepper hit them again. Steve was nowhere to be seen. Nat lifted her head from the book, threw the cushion she was resting on at his head and continued reading. Clint got the message and plonked himself down on the floor in front of Tony and Lewis.

When the movie ended, Clint attempted to catch Nat and ended up having to grab her when she was in her rooms.

“Seriously, what is going on between Tony and Lewis?”

Nat ignored him and just before Clint shut the door she told him to find out himself since he is a spy. Clint could not ignore the challenge and started preparing himself to stalk Tony and/or Lewis via the vents.

It took him another two weeks to find out what was going on between them, though it would have been quicker if JARVIS didn’t keep on warning them of his approach. He only found out because he’d bribed JARVIS with many unspeakable things to let him have a day of stal- _following_ them without interference.

He was in the vent above the kitchen, debating whether to get some food or not when Lewis entered at a run. He was about to intervene fearing she was being attacked when Tony ran in behind her and grabbed her by the waist. The two collapsed onto the sofa in fits of laughter which promptly stopped when Pepper’s heels could be heard. Both leapt up and tried to hide behind various items of furniture but stopped when Pepper’s voice yelled at them.

“ANTHONY EDWARD STARK! DARCY MARIA STARK! STOP THIS RIGHT NOW. Tony, you have papers to sign” Tony whined in protest but shut up at the glare he was given which made Clint wince. “Darcy, Jane is about to blow up the lab again.”

“But Pep” Tony whined at the same time Lewis also whined “But mom!”

Clint, having been half leaning on the vent, shifted his weight forward as he went into shock. He thought that they were having some sort of sexual relationship with Pepper’s blessing but Lewis – no Stark – being Tony’s daughter was both unexpected and not. After all, Tony slept around _a lot_ so there had to be at least one child out there. And they did both act very much alike with all their childish behaviour.

Unable to keep the position, Clint tumbled out of the vent and landed on the strategically placed sofa below. Tony, Pepper and Lew- _Star_ - _Tony’s Daughter_ all froze and stared at him. Clint blushed.

“That’s the best reaction so far” Tony exclaimed. His Daughter elbowed him the ribs.

“Pretty sure Boss Lady’s was better. At least Legolas here didn’t faint” SHE argued.

Before they could finish their argument, Pepper intervened. She passed Clint a beer which he happily nursed in shock before sitting down on the chair, passing Tony a stack of paper and ordering Tony’s Daughter to stop Dr Foster from killing herself which she did very grudgingly all the while muttering about Science!Wrangling.

Then, to Clint’s mortification, Nat walked in just as Tony’s Daughter shuffled out. She took one look at the room and raised an eyebrow.

“It took you _this_ long?”

Clint went even redder and sunk lower into the sofa while taking a gulp of his beer. Nat could be very scary.

 


	4. Bruce is Tony's Science!Bro (so of course he tells him)

Bruce Banner liked living at Stark Tower. He had a lab to himself where he could try to reverse his gamma ray accident but also a room, clothes and food. The only problem he found was his fellow Avenger, Tony Stark. Tony decided from the first day that Bruce moved in that Bruce was his Science!Bro. This apparently meant that Tony could poke Bruce with objects and generally try to get Hulk to come out and play multiple times a day. Naturally, Bruce wasn't too keen on this but he could put up with it if it meant that he had the lab and a safe place. And thankfully he had an ally in JARVIS who spent his whole time stopping Tony from killing himself or anyone else. Other than Tony and his interfering, life at Stark Tower was very good.

Director Fury then decided to interfere with Tony, Stark Tower and the other Avengers. Fury’s smart idea was to have all the Avengers live in Stark Tower together, regardless of what Tony and the other Avenger’s wanted, or the fact that Stark Tower was Tony’s private building and Fury really didn’t have a say in who lived there. Fury also stated that Stark Tower should be renamed Avengers Tower (again ignoring the fact that Tony owned the Tower and not SHIELD), something about a morale booster for New York and the rest of the world to know that all the Avengers were living in one place and were visible. Bruce decided that it would be a very bad idea and someone would die within the first month at least.

The first people to move in were Romanoff and Barton. Romanoff with little fuss but Barton turned up one day with a knapsack and promptly disappeared into the vents. After dropping out of the vents several times a day, Bruce got good at ignoring him and not Hulking out every time he appeared. It took a week before Barton became Clint and then another week before Romanoff became Natasha. It was then that Rogers moved in and the fights between Tony and Rogers started. Rogers kept comparing Tony to his father and bemoaning how ‘Howard would be rolling in his grave over his son’s behaviour’. Bruce, Clint and Natasha learnt to make themselves scarce when this happened until JARVIS informed them that Tony was about to kill Rogers and then one of them would intervene. Rogers couldn’t understand why Tony was like he was and how Howard was at fault for most of it.

It was after one of those arguments when Rogers had been living in Stark/Avengers Tower for only two weeks that Bruce found Tony by the bar staring at the deformed floor where Hulk had bashed Loki in during the Battle of New York (Tony wouldn’t get rid of it claiming that it was too cool, another thing that Rogers had started an argument over). Tony had a drink in his hand and a bottle by his feet.

“Better not let Rogers see you with that” Bruce pointed out, standing next to Tony.

Tony snorted in derision and took a large swig of the glass. “Rogers doesn’t like anything. Nothing nowadays is the same as before, in fact, it’s worse. And most of it’s my fault according to Captain Perfect, if _Howard_ were alive, the world wouldn’t be this bad.”

Tony threw the glass at the window where it shattered and picked up the bottle. Bruce just stood next to him in silence and let Tony rant while cursing both Fury and Rogers for causing everything.

“Thing is, _I know_ Howard was a shit dad and that I’m better than him in that aspect. At least I care what Darcy does or how she’s doing.”

That bottle got gulped down and thrown at the window, joining the glass in pieces on the floor.

“You’ve got a daughter?” Bruce had to exclaim, thinking he’d misheard Tony.

“Darcy Maria Stark alia Darcy Mary Lewis, Thor’s girlfriend’s intern/assistant thing” Tony waved his hand around, almost hitting Bruce in the head, “she’s coming tomorrow ‘cause Fury’s _ordered_ me to tell Thor to move here.”

Tony patted Bruce on the shoulder and wandered off without another word. Bruce just stood there blinking in shock.

“Tony’s told you about Darcy then” a voice behind Bruce said.

Bruce turned in shock and say Pepper Potts standing there, a glass of white wine in one hand and a mug of tea in the other. She passed him the mug and guided him to the armchair that Natasha usually inhabited before sitting in the corner of the sofa with her ever present VISP (Very Important Stack of Paper) next to her. They didn’t say anything but just sat there for a few hours in silence before Pepper stretched and stood up. Bidding him goodnight she left Bruce to his thoughts.

Bruce didn’t meet Darcy Stark for two days as Thor, Dr Foster and herself didn’t arrive until past midnight and then slept for the next day before Dr Foster and Darcy Stark appeared in the labs. Darcy Stark basically threatened him into calling her Darcy and Dr Foster Jane before corralling all the scientists into working, eating, drinking and sleeping while muttering about Science!Wrangling, coffee and idiotic scientists with no self-preservation ability. Bruce just stood back and watched Tony’s daughter act all sensible and mature while waiting for the inevitable clash between Tony and Darcy and Rogers and debating whether he wanted to see it or not. In the end he decided to not be in the room if he could help it (he has self-preservation thank you very much Darcy) but get JARVIS to show him later.


	5. Steve is an idiot who's stuck in the past and jumps to conclusions

Steve Rogers, Punk, Captain Steven Grant Rogers, Captain America, The First Avenger, The Super Soldier, The Living Legend, The Man Out of Time, The World’s First Superhero. He had been many things over many years and he didn’t know who he was anymore. He had gone down into the ice during WW2 and woken 67 years later in a strange place with all his friends dead or dying. Bucky gone, Peggy in a home and he was still the same. Fighting Loki had given him a purpose and a team, even if it did include Howard’s wayward son. Director Fury had given him space and the loss of Coulson meant that he had all his old things back but now, now the Director had decided that it was a good idea for all the Avengers to move into the monstrosity that Howard’s Son called a Tower and modern piece of architecture. Steve rather preferred the old comforting and familiar architecture of home. But he wasn’t one to disobey orders so Steve packed up his things and moved from his old apartment to Howard’s Son’s Tower.

As soon as he moved in, he knew that it wouldn’t work but Director Fury had ordered it so Steve would obey. Howard’s Son’s AI (and how Howard would have wanted to have created it) was everywhere and Steve had no privacy. Howard’s Son was also annoyingly smug, arrogant, a playboy, alcoholic and everything else that Steve hated. He was the opposite to what Howard was like. How Miss Potts could stand to be the partner of Howard’s Son he didn’t understand. Steve also knew that Director Fury thought the same about Howard’s Son as he did, and he was sure that Romanoff didn’t like him either, he’d seen her report – textbook narcissism among other things – so he didn’t know how or why people did like him, or even stand him.

Steve had only been in Avengers Tower (he refused to think of it as Stark Tower as it was an insult to Howard’s memory) for two weeks when Thor turned up with his partner Dr Jane Foster and her intern Darcy Lewis. Thor was not exactly a good housemate with his proclivity for breaking things and him not understanding Earth culture but Steve understood that as _he_ didn’t understand much of the culture of today. He was also the only person he could spar with and not injure so it was nice to have a proper sparring partner. Dr Foster was strange, she had her head in the stars looking for a way to create this bridge between Asgard and Earth and only emerged from the labs when her intern forced her or Thor wanted to go out. Darcy Lewis, Dr Foster’s intern, was not a person Steve liked. She was loud, indecent and reminded Steve too much of Howard’s Son with her childlike behaviour and alcoholic tendencies. He had to admit that she was very good at getting the scientists out of the labs to eat and sleep.

Howard’s Son, after Thor, Dr Foster and Lewis moved in, implemented a movie night twice a week for all inhabitants to “ _get the uncultured people up to scratch_ ”. After being forced to watch some inane, violent movie, Steve opted out of the movie nights and spent them in his apartment drawing images from his memory. He supposed that Howard’s Son had one good thing in that he was generous, like Howard, and would constantly buy Steve art supplies and frames for his finished pictures. It didn’t help that Howard’s Son and Lewis were cuddled together on a sofa with Miss Potts squashed on the end with a large stack of papers for Stark’s company that Stark really should have been completing but instead ignored and left them to Miss Potts to do. Howard’s Son was irresponsible and lazy and preferred to _grope_ someone half his age next to his partner rather than be responsible and run his company, the company Howard had put so much into.

Due to his avoidance of both Howard’s Son and Lewis (except when Howard’s Son had infuriated him so much he had an argument with him) he didn’t realise that Howard’s Son’s relationship with Lewis was different to his normal relationships with women. In his mind Howard’s Son was a cheating, lazy, irresponsible, arrogant, alcoholic arse while Lewis was a simple whore who was sleeping with her boss’s partner’s teammate and Miss Potts was either totally oblivious (unlikely from what he had seen of her) or a saint to put up with Howard’s disgrace of a son.

Steve had been living at Avengers Tower for a little over a month and had managed to see Lewis on average five times a week when she dragged the scientists to dinner but he’d had to put up with Howard’s Son for almost three days straight on a mission only two days previously. It was near 1500hrs when he headed to the communal kitchen from the gym to grab something to eat when he heard squealing coming from the common area. Walking into the common area he stopped dead.

Howard’s Son was chasing Lewis around the sofa and armchairs, one of which was occupied by Romanoff with a book, until Lewis tripped and Howard’s Son grabbed her around the waist and hugged her indecently close to him while kissing her on the cheek. Something in Steve snapped, here was Howard’s Son going against everything Howard ever stood for and Romanoff wasn’t doing anything about it.

“Howard would be ashamed of you to see his son abandon his company and cheat on his partner with a girl half his age” Steve raged, storming over to the pair and adopting his Captain pose.

Howard’s Son and Lewis broke apart instantly and out of the corner of his eyes he could see Romanoff slowly putting the book down. Howard’s Son and Lewis looked at each other and had the audacity to burst out laughing at his comment.

“I don’t find it funny. You are a disgrace to the Stark name.”

Lewis snorted as if something was funny after getting her laughter under control. Steve just stared at her with his Captain stare.

“You talking to me or Dad?” she said flippantly before turning to Howard’s Son, hitting him in the chest and running off again with Howard’s Son chasing her.

“You really shouldn’t talk about Tony’s father around him” Romanoff commented, “he wasn’t the man you remember. Read his SHIELD file if you want to know about him but don’t compare Tony to him.”

Romanoff stood up and stalked off, hands moving towards her belt with the Widow Bites attached.

“This isn’t the same world as the thirties Rogers. Tony and Darcy are the future, unless you want to be the past I’d deal with it.”

Steve just sat down in shock then stood up and headed down to the gym to punch through some bags.

_Surely Howard can’t have changed as Romanoff seems to believe._

But as he went through bags, Steve wasn’t too sure. At least he’d learnt not to jump to conclusions where Howard’s So- _Stark_ or his daughter were concerned.


End file.
